Quick update (Sep 14, 2022)

Hey ya'll!

Back again with another update. Let's start with the minor update

Uploaded a new version of the playtest. This just fixes some typos, trimmed some fat, and revised some abilities from already existing Archetypes. 

The rest of this devlog is more just me spouting some thoughts on what I have in mind. But the TL;DR is "Gonna go into full swing making rules for long term play, gonna overhaul Doomsday Prepper, gonna add one more Archetype, and will try to playtest a full campaign by Winter" 

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The biggest one is that I am not exactly happy with the Doomsday Prepper right now.  They definitely have some cool stuff going on, especially when compared from Ver. 01 to Ver. 02. The problem is when compared to the other archetypes,  they seem very unfocused and boring. All the other archetypes have a clear theme going on, and is focused in what they are best at.  However, I don't want to outright scrap them either; I really do like the idea of someone who is crazy prepared for what the apocalypse throws at them. Even if they are constantly being thrown into dangerous and perilous situations, they can (try to) keep a cool head and adapt. 

Next, going to add a new archetype: The Occultist (placeholder name). Having a Cult domain, I realized "Oh yeah, I should probably have something related to that as a playable archetype." However, I struggled with it for a very long time because I wanted to keep this game as grounded as possible. Having a cast full of downright miserable people trying to make it to the next day, and then just breaking that tone by having a dude shoot lightning bolts from their hands. Then I realized what the solution was: "Magic, but not really magic." The Occultist's Core Ability "Minor Miracle." lets them suffer Luck Stress in exchange for performing a "minor miracle" such as having a gun jam, helping an ally from a distance, "stumbling" into something important, temporarily fixing equipment, etc. This is all under the guise of a stroke of luck; a miracle. Is it magic? Is it coincidence? Who knows?! And the rest of their abilities follow a similar theme. 

And finally, long term play. The main goal with my "long term play" section is to lay out a campaign frame that guides players and GM on the journey to the City of Hope. Here's the gist of it: 

• The GM states where the City of Hope exactly is. City of Hope is somewhat setting agnostic. I live in the US, so I'm going to make the City of Hope be in California for my example. But you could set it anywhere in the world. 
• Then the game is divided into four "Seasons." Each Season, the players find themselves inside of a Region. A Region can be anything from a small town, a city, or even inside one location (university, mall, national park). 
• In the Region, there is an obstacle the PC's need to take care of. This can be as simple as "getting out of here alive." But it can also be more specific goals, like "we need to fix up an RV", "we need to rescue our people from this faction.", or even "this storm is too dangerous to pass through, we have to hold out for the weekend." 
• Once you complete the clear condition, you can move onto the next Region and start the next Season. 
• Once you pass through the first three Regions, you finally make it to the Region where The City of Hope is located (aka, the final Season)

In the process of working out long term play, I will also be working out how leveling up works, as well as writing out how to activate a player's Finale Ability. 

Heart: The City Beneath advancement system is done through Callings. Callings are the reason why the Delver is risking their life inside the Heart. Callings are made up of beats; goals a character works towards. In accomplishing their goal, they earn a new ability. However, Delvers are hardly going into the Heart for noble causes and many of the beats involve the characters doing morally questionable actions. And even then, that is being generous.

Survivors in Hope, however, are different. They are broken people; they had a relatively normal life that was stripped away from them, and were force to adapt. Because if they didn't adapt, they would die (or worse.) And all of them have been enduring this life for at least 10 or so years. Killing people, scavenging for supplies, and moving from place to place. And if they ever settled, it was never perfect, and would inevitably have to move onto something else. Then, they hear a rumor about a city that apparently has it all figured out. And despite having heard this story a million times, only for the settlement to fall apart, they still are risking their lives to go to a city that might not even be real. And that's where the struggle with doing Callings for Road to Hope comes from. I am toying with other ideas, (an XP system, Keys, progression based advancement) but Callings is something I keep coming back to. That's not to say the final version of this game will have Callings, but rather to explain why they are not present in the playtest and where my mind is at in regards to this subject. 

And while I'm at it, might as well talk about Finale Abilities. In Heart, characters had these things called "Zenith Abilities." They are, simply put, a powerful ability that usually kills the PC in the process.  Hope has something similar to that called "Finale Abilities." The Survivors have been stripped away of normalcy, and often feel like they're living their lives in a reactionary way; find a position of relative comfort, desperately try to maintain that, have things go out of control, find a new position of comfort, repeat until you die." But what if... what if you can seize the day. Finale Abilities allow the PC to go out on their own terms. In exchange for taking control of the narrative, the PC dies in the process. But their sacrifice does not go in vain; each Finale Ability gives a PC an ability from your Archetype, gives the Camp an ability they keep, and guarantees the rest of the PCs and their allies escape the situation alive, no matter the odds. 

And finally, Playtesting. Based on how things are going in both the game and my irl, I can possibly get a campaign up and running by winter of this year. That's if I'm being cautiously optimistic. Realistically, I can probably get something off the ground by early 2023. In the full campaign, I will be testing out the 4 Seasons Frame and see how well it works